Ask HN: Lack of new customers is killing where I work at. What now?
I work at a software house and the lack of new customers is making everyone pretend they're working, with ppl getting really creative with BS internal projects, demanding what should everyone do, founders implementing OKRs of all sorts in all areas and that kind of shit makes me cringe and I'm losing the joy, because I do have full time work and now I need to look at useless corporate BS. Because me and some of the company still working and allocated to real projects.
Should I look for a new place to work or is it happening everywhere? At big movie studios there are still DVD authoring departments with lots of people looking very busy. I still see DVDs and Blu-Ray discs at the store, I even buy some. On the other hand I recently bought a VHS deck for $15 from the local "reuse center" where you can buy (not rent) the tapes for 50 cents. DVDs are great and I still buy them. Just the other day I wanted an award-winning movie and it cost $15 to rent online or $20 to buy. The DVD was $3 for rent at Redbox and $1 more to keep the disc. Free to loan to friends and no platform lock. Plenty of people still have a working DVD player and never got a Blu-Ray player. If the people in the authoring department do their jobs well, a DVD looks pretty ok compared to typical 5Mbps streaming video. Well you could think of an ambitious startup like it has a certain runway to take off before it runs out of runway. In a promising environment, the marginal companies could be grouped in with the most airworthy. Now if you're barely off the ground, and the going gets rough, the runway means something completely different. It's good to be in a vehicle that can make it back to a runway to fly again, rather than crash before you can get to some kind of survivable landing. You can't always be sure of which one you are in or how good the pilot is. In a threatening environent, the marginal performers could be unfairly grounded, although it could sometimes amount to risk reduction until clearer skies are ahead. You might need to be careful you don't go to a place that will crash sooner with less warning. OKRs are definitely a "bad smell" particularly in a startup company or a troubled company where they detract from the urgency of finding product-market fit. That sounds bad. I've worked in a lot of startups and usually the lack of new customers make everyone focused and on the same page, trying to keep it alive. Most of the fun of working at startups is the adventure and the fast pace.